Pictured are Ohio 11th Congressio nal District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (wearing orange scarf), a Warrensville Heights Democratg, former Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas judge Lance Mason, and his ex-wife, Aisha Fraser (wearing blue, whom Mason is accused of murdering

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By editor Kathy Wray Coleman

CLEVELANDURBANNEWSCOM-CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold on Wednesday granted U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, a Warrensville Heights Democrat whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland, a restraining order against an Avon woman who claims the congresswoman assaulted her when she approached her about supporting former Common Pleas judge Lance Mason, who is in custody and charged with killing his ex-wife.

Mason, a Cleveland City Hall administrator at the time of the incident, murdered his ex-wife, Aisha Fraser, late last year following a domestic altercation.

The disbarred former judge had served a brief prison sentence for assaulting Fraser in 2014 and Fudge, among other Democratic Black leaders, sent a letter recommending him for a ranking administrative position at City Hall in the office of minority businesses, a position he secured with help from Democratic Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, the city's third Black mayor and a Fudge ally.

Fudge, whose prior support of Mason made national news last year when she contemplated but decided against making a bid for U.S. House of Representative speaker against Nancy Pelosi, was in court Wednesday seeking the restraining order and has not been charged.

She denied any assault on the woman, Mary Ann Lorient, and told Strickland Saffold, who was presiding over the restraining order case, that "if I had assaulted her she would be hurt."

The congresswoman, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, prior national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc, and former mayor of Warrensville Heights, said the assault allegation is a "total fabrication."

Fudge told the judge Lorient stalked her and got in her face at the swearing-in last month of Common Pleas Judge Deborah Turner, the dispute boiling over as to Fudge's previous support of Mason, who like Fudge, Fraser and Lorient is Black.

Lorient's  recorded video of parts of the alleged assault incident, in which her cell phone, which she puts in Fudge's face, is purportedly knocked from her hand as the two women were headed to Strickland Saffold's court Wednesday morning, has Orient calling Fudge "a murderer."

The video does not show what happened before the cell phone went flying into the air,  and then hitting the ground with Lorient still raging.

Lorient has not been charged with a crime either, and said that Aisha was a friend and that Fudge's prior support of Lance Mason is tantamount to murder.

Strickland Saffold is one of four Blacks on the 34-member common pleas general division bench of Cuyahoga County, along with Turner, Wanda Jones, and Cassandra Collier-Williams.

The only Republican among the four  Black judges, Jones was appointed in December by then governor John Kasich to replace Judge Michael Donnelly, who was elected to the Ohio Supreme Court, and is running for election to the seat this year.

After a lecture to Lorient, the judge granted the restraining order and ordered Lorient to stay at least 500 ft away from the congresswoman, though the order permits Lorient to attend public events where Fudge is present and to continue speaking out on issues of public concern.

Lorient said that both Judge Saffold and Congresswoman Fudge were trying to silence her and that the restraining order is a sham.

Fudge, 65, no longer supports Mason, 51, and has said she is startled he is a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife.

She supported Mason when he came home from prison, because he was a longtime friend and needed to feed his family.

Mayor Jackson said the city's motto is second chances and that he could not foresee that Mason would go so far as to murder his ex-wife when the city hired him over several other applicants.